Negative Space Denver

Come join us for the Morning Parable, a space where we share a story, parable, or short piece of fiction and examine what questions or ideas about life and human experience we can take from a parable. In the form of short fiction, we find old stories told anew, new stories which communicate old truths, and everything in between. Attached is the fiction for the month.

The Morning Parable meets every first Sunday of the month at 11am.

Here's the link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q2KsbxqyHMOj1pFcHUAfBwskik2kNl0c/view

Hey all,

This week Negative Space topic is hosted by Ezra, titled Jesus and Hermes, which explores these figures through a Jungian framework.

Here's the write-up followed by a link to the full paper:

Throughout history, the Trickster has been cast as a liminal figure—dancing on the edges of order and chaos, wisdom and folly, divinity and transgression. Jung understood archetypes to refer to particular contents of the collective unconscious that were “analogous to the instincts, except operating in the psyche instead of the body” (Clift, 1982, p. 19). In the person of Jesus Christ, we find the fulfillment of this archetype not as a mere deceiver or rogue, but as the Divine Trickster, the one who upends the law to reveal grace, speaks in riddles to unveil eternal truths, and triumphs through the paradox of death and resurrection (Edinger, 1994). Like the Tricksters of myth who disrupt the hero’s journey—challenging, confounding, and ultimately refining them—Christ unsettles the world’s expectations, shattering illusions of power and righteousness to reveal a kingdom not built on conquest, but on sacrifice. The Trickster’s subversive presence is both a stumbling block and a source of transformation, revealing that in loss there is victory, in humility there is kingship, and in death there is life everlasting.

Overview: First, this paper will explore the myth of Hermes, then various parallels with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ will be drawn, Jung’s understanding of the Trickster will be included, followed by deeper aspects about the transformative qualities. Although this paper is indeed meant to cast a deep net about the archetype of the Trickster, and not necessarily a wide one, it seems nearly impossible to do so without also observing the whales in the water, so to speak, of how contemporary political, ecological, and religious narratives are magnified by the Trickster’s presence. Therefore, these topics will be briefly synthesized at the end. Ultimately, this paper does not merely seek to draw historical parallels with mythical narratives, but also aims to explore how the Trickster archetype remains a relevant force in shaping cultural, political, and personal transformation, even today.

Link to full write-up:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HQ3CVmyQ8lLMaelsOdm_zVRgOWX8cXlaBeuOD1sW9ds/edit?tab=t.0

See ya there!